Hosted VoIP for Small Business | Medical Office with Multiple Locations

Lot of Small Businesses and Medical Offices I have been speaking with seems to have multiple office locations. While having multiple office locations involves very complicated routing and is generally detrimental to a traditional phone systems, Hosted VoIp service are not bound to those same limitations.

Hosted VoIp Service similar to ExpressVoice PBX Business Elite Plan supports multiple office locations with ease. It can tie all of the office locations into one calling group under one shared plan. What this means to you is that all Allocated Minutes can be shared by All Offices you own for easier manageability and accounting. It also means that you can transfer calls easily using individual Extensions no matter which office that person is located in. It can also take advantage of Advanced Calling Features such as BLF, Auto Attendant, IVR, Hunt Groups, etc across ALL offices.
Below is how an office with multiple locations might be configured:

Mandatory Requirements:

Incoming Calls:
All incoming calls, whether local, toll free, or vanity number, should ring at the Main Office. This simplifies call routing and allows central point from which to branch out.

Advanced Call Routing Features:
Once a call is received, the receptionist must be able to monitor the extensions for activity for ease of transferring calls. If the desired person is unavailable, the receptionist must be able to tranfer directly to voicemail. The monitoring capability must be across all offices which includes remote offices, remote workers, and telecommuters.

Hold Music:
During a call, the caller will hear Music on Hold instead of eerie silence or annoying beeps.

IVR and Autoattendant:
While Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Auto Attendant can be utilized with our hosted VoIP system, I found that a lot of small businesses and medical offices prefer to have all inbound calls ring individual or call groups directly. However, lot of customers have asked for an IVR and Auto Attendant for their night greetings giving the callers menu of options to choose from.

Voicemail Handling:
When a caller leaves a voicemail, the actual voicemails must be emailed to a designated email address for retrieval via their smartphone or any email capable device. The users must also be able to retrieve voicemails from a remote location by dialing into a specific phone number.

Remote Workers:
Any telecommuter or remote worker must be able to receive calls and make calls as if they were physically located in the office. This can be accomplished via SoftPhone or a physical IP Phone in their home office.

Uniform Caller ID:
All outbound call’s Caller ID Name and Number must show the main number and business name.Optional Requirements:

Virtual Conference Rooms:
Everyone in the organization should have access to a virtual conference room for meetings

Video Conferencing:
Senior management should be able to use video-conferencing features to have a face to face conversation amongst each other.

If no Answer, rings other phones in sequence or simultaneously for 30 seconds

Playback a Greeting that states there are high volume of calls

Gives option to hit “0” and leave a Voicemail

Gives option to stay online and someone will answer shortly

Rings the designated extension for 30 seconds before playing the message again

Repeat the above sequence until the phone is answered or the caller leaves a Voicemail

Press 9 to Dial by Name

Punch in 3 digits of First or Last Name and the call will be transferred to the destination

If no input from caller, plays the greeting menu again

This will repeat until the call gets answered by the Receptionist, call is transferred to an extension via Dial by Name, or the caller leaves a voicemail.
Incoming Calls After-Hours:

Playback a Greeting that states the office is closed

Gives option to hit “0” and it will forward the call to a specific number which could be a emergency doctor or after-hours support person

After Playback, call will be transferred to Voicemail

As you can see, Hosted VoIP service offers immense flexibility in both configuration and setup of your phone system to meet your exact needs. If you are considering upgrading your traditional PBX system or starting up a new office, please make sure to analyze the pros and cons of Hosted VoIP system.